The present invention generally relates to the field of cassette tape players or recorders in which a tape-carrying cassette housing (cartridge) having tape disposed on and between two reels is inserted into the tape player such that the tape player creates controlled driving movement of the tape by positioning the tape between a driven capstan shaft and a rotatable pressure roller, with both the capstan shaft and pressure roller being part of the tape player, wherein the pressure roller is selectively moved into contact with the capstan shaft while frictionally pressing the inserted tape between the pressure roller and capstan shaft. Such reel-to-reel cassette tape players are well known and readily commercially available. These types of tape players should be contrasted with "eight-track cartridge" tape players in which an endless loop tape is provided on one reel in an insertable tape carrier cartridge (housing) that contains its own pressure roller while the tape player contains an upstanding capstan shaft but does not have its own pressure roller to captivate the tape between it and the capstan shaft.
In cassette-type tape players, typically the cassette and tape are inserted over a free upstanding end of a capstan shaft, and subsequently a freely rotatable pressure roller is laterally moved into operative position so as to continuously frictionally press the tape in the cassette housing against the capstan shaft. By driving the capstan shaft, driving movement is provided to the tape wherein the capstan shaft provides an accurately speed-controlled movement for the tape which is necessary for accurate reproduction of sounds magnetically recorded on the tape. Typically the tape player has at least one spoked hub which coacts with one reel in the cassette housing to act as a tape take-up reel.
Generally, the tape player contains one or more cassette housing guides which typically comprise upstanding projections which mate with openings in the cassette housing so as to accurately position the cassette housing within the tape player. This accurate positioning is necessary since the tape must be accurately aligned with a magnetic recording/playback head contained in the tape player.
Such prior tape players have not provided any guide mechanism for guiding the tape within the cassette housing into a proper position with respect to the capstan shaft during the insertion of the cassette housing into the tape player. Because of this, these prior tape players are subject to a failure mode caused by the insertion of the cassette housing into the tape player wherein the tape within the housing may end up on the wrong side of the capstan shaft such that it will not be sandwiched between the capstan shaft and the pressure roller. This will result in failing to provide any driving movement to the tape by the capstan shaft and requires the ejection of the cassette housing and its reinsertion to hopefully correct this defective condition. This failure mode is most likely to occur when tapes of extremely thin thickness are utilized since the tape will then be subject to more movement within the cassette housing so that it is possible to misalign this tape with respect to the capstan shaft even though the cassette housing is properly positioned by the existing cassette housing guides in the tape player.
In addition, cassette tape players or recorders of the type described above have not provided any tape stripper member which prevents the driven tape from being wrapped around the capstan shaft due to the tape sticking to the capstan shaft. Such tape strippers have been utilized in conjunction with eight-track tape players and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,581,966 and 3,734,373 illustrate such eight-track tape stripper members wherein both of these patents are assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. In eight-track tape players, since the pressure roller is carried by the inserted eight-track cartridge, essentially, 180.degree. of angular space is available surrounding the eight-track capstan shaft for disposing the tape stripper and therefore there are essentially no restraints on the size of the tape stripper member since the eight-track cartridge and tape will be disposed only on one side of the capstan shaft thus leaving substantial space on the other side of the capstan shaft for the tape stripper member. Such design freedom in designing the tape stripper member is not possible in a cassette-type tape player since portions of the cassette housing are present on both sides of the capstan shaft.